Tachometers for dummies!

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53ryder

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Would like a add a tachometer to my '65 Dart. The previous owner added a 'Sunpro' oil pressure gauge, which is mounted on the bottom of the dashboard. Is 'Sunpro' a decent brand? I don't want to spend a boatload of money on this. And yes, this is all new to me!

Any thoughts?



Glenn
 
i bought this tach brand new. hooked it up worked great for the first few months. gradually the needle started sticking at the RPMs the engine was turning when i shut the car off. it eventually stopped reading properly all together. now it doesnt work at all. its a POS in my opinion, but maybe i got a bad one. i do know i wont get another one. it lasted about 8 months. this pic is after i shut the key off LOL
 

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I get those bogus readings sometimes on some of the transit buses I drive. I love seeing the speedometer registering 20mph and the bus is stopped, with the engine off!


Glenn
(good point made about possible lack of quality)
 
My dad has had a sunpro in his 68 charger for the last 20 yrs and before that 10 yrs in his 68 bug. It is over 30 years old. Still works great also have onr in my 1974 Dart
 
I also favot autometer,but mostly for it's look. I've had plently of cheap gauges over the years,and most of em have been just fine.
 
Autometers are good, SW ones are nice to.
 
Ive never had a problem with sunpro but they were bought years ago...maybe they are made someplace diffrent now?
 
waggin said:
Ive never had a problem with sunpro but they were bought years ago...maybe they are made someplace diffrent now?
Click to expand...
All the sunpros i seen new are Made in China.
 
I just bought a Tach for my Rallye dash and the instructions state that "these Tachs zero out when power is applied " so I guess I\ll be seeing the same sort of thing when I shut the key off , Oh well as long as it works when the engine is running is all I care about
 
cannucky said:
I just bought a Tach for my Rallye dash and the instructions state that "these Tachs zero out when power is applied " so I guess I\ll be seeing the same sort of thing when I shut the key off , Oh well as long as it works when the engine is running is all I care about
Click to expand...

same here, all cared about is if it worked while the engine is running, which it did...for a while, then it started reading 1500 in gear and then only went up from there, it was actually kind of amusing for a while, then it got irritating , then it quit LOL. i found a Westberg tach at pull n pay that had seen the elements, looked it up on their website, turns out it was 140.00 new, blew the dirt off it and hooked it up, works perfect !
 
I've always had good luck with my Sunpro tachs, used them a few times, one of them I gave to my dad and its in his Van, after 17 years it still works great!
 
I problem I see with a tach like 73AbodEE's is will it register below the 1000rpm mark once the engine starts? His looks to be 'stuck' at 1000 rpm. The idle speed for my 225 slant 6 is 500 rpm I believe. So if a 'stuck' tach won't register at low rpm's it wouldn't do much good. Of course you won't know about a sticky tach until it starts behaving that way.


Glenn


P.S. I see Auto Meter is made in the USA>
 
There was a sunpro 2 in my dart sport when it came from Iowa , it worked fine , i hate them so bad i through it it the garbage , something like crager wheels i break those first though, then throw them out.
 
53ryder said:
I problem I see with a tach like 73AbodEE's is will it register below the 1000rpm mark once the engine starts? His looks to be 'stuck' at 1000 rpm. The idle speed for my 225 slant 6 is 500 rpm I believe. So if a 'stuck' tach won't register at low rpm's it wouldn't do much good. Of course you won't know about a sticky tach until it starts behaving that way.


Glenn


P.S. I see Auto Meter is made in the USA>
Click to expand...

it started doing all kinds of weird crap after about 5 months. some days i would turn the key on, it would drop and register, some days it would drop when i shut car off then jump around 1500 rpms when i started it. the thing was junk. it ended its miserable existance at the end of a sludge hammer lol
 
I have an older one in my duster, probabbly at least 15 years old and the sunpro is still working, and I bought it used.
Check swap meets for one, easy to verify that it works.
 
kegan71 said:
All the sunpros i seen new are Made in China.
Click to expand...

I have a hard time finding ANYTHING not made in China these days.

Where are Auto meters made? If China thier probably made in the same factory as the cheaper brands,just a higher price tag. And this is the biggest scam of the century,as we are being sold the same name brand stuff but built in China with substandard everything to increase the all mighty profit margin.
 
I had a sunpro and it caused the ignition to loose fire (tach shorted out) left me on the side of the road and I had to unhook it to get the vehicle home
 
I bought from Charger Specialties who claim all their stuff is made in the USA for all that that's worth these days .
 
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